The Hitman Series - ***SPOILERS***

Hey everybody. I just received Hitman - Blood Money today, and one thing that I loved about Hitman: Codename 47, was the ultra cool ending(Harsh white backdrop and... well you know). So I saw that Hitman(2): Silent Assassin had come out. I downloaded the game but it kept on crashing every hour or so. My understanding of the story(in my mind) is very incomplete. If I could, I'd like to know what happens in the series prior to Blood Money (Silent Assassin and Contracts).

After learning about his dark past and unnatural conception at the end of Hitman: Codename 47, 47 seeks refuge in a monastery in Sicily. Attempting to put his murderous past behind him he begins a new life as a simple church gardener.

Unfortunately, 47 is brought out of his soul-searching retirement when his host and friend Father Vittorio is kidnapped by the Mafia. Desperate to find his friend, 47 contacts the agency which used to employ him, asking for assistance.

Contracts

The hunter has become the hunted, as 47 is seriously wounded by one of his own targets, who seems to have been expecting him. Bleeding to death and taking refuge in a hotel room somewhere in Paris, France, 47 drifts in and out of consciousness as an army of heavily armed French SWAT units converge around the apartment complex.

(The whole game within itself plays as a prequel just like Blood Money)

Thanks, that cleared up some things. 47 has obviously gone back to a life of killing (can anyone tell me why? i've read walkthroughs but most are spoiler-free), but what happens in Contracts? It begins with him bleeding real bad, meaning his last hit was a failure. Can anyone tell me why it goes awry, and how he gets out of it?

Hitman: Blood Money, has a level (Curtains Down) in which you are to kill one actor and a U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican at the Opera house in Paris. At the end of the level a French policeman on the other side of the street notices you getting away from the crime scene and cocks his gun. The scene ends here but it's possible to conclude that 47 gets badly wounded afterwards since in the next mission (Flatline) Diana Burnwood says she's glad that 47 has recovered from his wounds and is back working for the Agency. It is between these two of Blood Money's missions that Contracts takes place. Eidos had planned that Blood Money and Contracts' storylines would converge this way. A mission in one game is the backstory for another.